Tag Archives: film

When I finally started to research this, which was supposed to be a significant part of the blog (it’s in the blog name, after all) I really had to remember something that’s completely basic about fiction. Which is that most fiction is about much more intense, much more exaggerated versions of events than are found in everyday life.

This exaggeration for effect is true of any fiction: for instance, nowhere in East London is as mad and crazy as Albert Square in EastEnders, but it keeps millions of people gripped every week. Prepper fiction isn’t nearly as far out as it might be, in this respect: instead of Spanish ‘flu, for instance, we get a flu with a death rate that’s much worse. Instead of a proxy war in the Middle East, we get an EMP that takes out the Western world.

Think of the fiction that you know of, that refers to preparedness: it’s almost always about the end of the world, whether it’s classics like Lucifer’s Hammer by Larry Niven, or Last Light by Alex Scarrow, both of which I really like. A few people are prepared, and the rest are reacting on the fly, and if they think on their feet, they can often manage. Amongst all the death and destruction, of course.

So the preparedness that’s on view in most fiction isn’t anything like how most people, in the UK anyway, prepare for the various issues that are on their radar: flooding, unemployment. And if you keep that in mind, then some of the novels that are around can be a lot of fun, and I’ve recently come across a few comedies.

Films and TV are on the agenda too, of course: films are much more likely to be about unprepared people struggling to survive, probably because that’s more dramatic, in Hollywood terms. 2012, starring John Cusack comes to mind. The Day After Tomorrow as well. I can’t even think of any preppers in mainstream films, not preppers as I’d consider them, in any case. Unfortunately, preppers in TV are much more likely to fall into the cliché of “Doomsday Prepper”: I’ve watched a few clips on youtube, but the presentation is so offputting, it’s not a good watch.

There are very few exceptions: I remember Blackout, the Channel 4 production of a couple of years ago, and Threads, broadcast in 1984 (though prepping wouldn’t exactly have helped in that situation, to be fair).

Prepping can be usefully displayed in fiction, but it’s mostly in the background, or a question of attitude: Pride And Prejuice And Zombies and The Hunger Games, for instance, The Mandibles by Lionel Shriver, and John Christopher’s books. It takes front and centre stage in many of John Wyndham’s books, and Larry Niven’s too, as well as more modern books like the Arisen series and Emberverse.

I want to start posting reviews of films, books and authors, and I’ve been having a lot of fun offline reading and watching new ones and re-reading and re-watching old favourites. More is coming! Real Soon Now!

As I was posting this, right at Halloween, I remembered that we love being scared, Halloween is about that – even historically. It was about getting the demons and the devil out of the way so that 1st November could truly be All Saints Day, which is what it originally was. And being scared, and overcoming the fear, is what prepping fiction is all about too. An honourable tradition, and it fits very well.

If you have any recommendations, feel free to post them in the Comments, and I’ll have a look-see.